


Red Snow

by unluckitty



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Horror, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Blood, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, I have no idea if this is cute or unsettling or both, M/M, Slasher, Surreal, Uncanny Valley, mention of murder, yandere!jaemin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unluckitty/pseuds/unluckitty
Summary: Question everything. Repeat the days. And whatever you do, don't trust the ghost that shows up in your front garden at 5am mid-winter.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23
Collections: NCT Spookfest Spring Scream





	Red Snow

Renjun always found snow creepy, in a way.

The silence as it waltzes from the heavens in rhythm with music only it seemed to hear, wrecking havoc the next day. The unusual white tinge that isn't quite “white” but it also isn't quite...anything. The crunch that most people would consider satisfying was too loud of a noise for something that light to make. Blanketing gasping ground in puff-pastry layers, except Renjun never saw it that way; it was more as if it were suffocating it, gently with a smile. The way mother nature would willingly kill an innocent swan with the flick of a wrist. The fact that every single speck was supposedly different, as had been drilled into his head since childhood- he never believed that, somehow. How could it be that something so unforgivingly fierce would seem to be made so lovingly? 

Snow was creepy, to Renjun. 

Which explained the instinctive chill he got as soon as his eyes popped open to his annoyance at early morning hours. The sun wouldn't rise any time soon. He'd be lucky if it ever rose for the next week at least. He'd be lucky if _he_ ever rose for the next week at least- a thought he entertained quite a lot these days. 

The radiator hummed away its tuneless melody, the warm light from under the bathroom door lighting up a little pathway to hell, as it usually did. Waste of electricity, but for his own sanity it was worth it. 

He flipped over to his other side, nearly falling off his too-small bed whilst doing so. But he liked this bed all the same. He had to, if it were to become his coffin one day. Sighing, he stared at the blank wall opposite his bed. A mirror would look good there, but why would he ever put one there?

Everyone knows the portals only mirrors seem to know about, and how they always acted like an extra pair of ears in an otherwise empty room. Renjun always found it weird how something's surface could be so smooth that it reflected light so uniformly. And how something like that could be so delicate: he'd made that mistake years and years ago. Long story short, he needed stitches for those shard cuts. God, the pain.

One thing his radiator and the wind outside had in common, was that they were somehow both singing a certain note, but it was indistinguishable. That, and the fact that they both brought air inside his house. You'd be surprised at the politeness of the wind. Though on some days it needed some talking to in order to keep that damn door open for more than three seconds. 

Renjun flipped over again, to stare at the ceiling. He really ought to get those cracks covered at some point. Would masking tape do? Paint? He really didn't know. All he knew was that the stains the leaking rain made on his wooden floors would be a pain to redo. Though to be honest, the floor was already like that when he got this house. Just that the stain was redder at the time; constant water dripping on it did some stuff to it. 

He finally sat up, taking a glance around his empty room to make sure that his very limited belongings were all in order: ratchet toy box in the corner, set of drawers to cradle clothes, and why he even needed to check that clunky closet was a mystery to even him. Not as if it could go walking on its legs any day. 

Darkness flooded outside, with only a single street lamp on. Somehow the council thought it would be practical to only put five on his street, and the last one was right outside his window. How convenient. 

His legs begged to be stretched, so he swung out to fetch some water from the bathroom. Cold, cold water to soothe his burning head. Ah, he didn't mention that snow gave him a headache. Don't ask why. 

He took a quick glance out the one tiny window by his bedroom. Grey, from the mix of dark and light. Fitting for this time of day. Or night, depending on Renjun's mood. Today, he'd say it's day. 

The drain made its strangled sound as Renjun filled up a cup, still staring outside. Why the architect thought putting a window right in front of the sink, in front of a shower, was a good idea was beyond him. 

The water seemed to wake him up a bit more and he coughed to life. Funny how water does that to so many things. 

For fun, with the little water at the bottom of the cup, he opened the window to toss it out. Maybe it would form ice midair, he thought, as the wind welcomed itself in. He would talk to it later. But for now, he threw out the last couple drops into the snow. There was an unmistakable crackle as it hit the snow, but too loud to be made by just a bit of water. Crackle, crunch. Teeth in a pestle and mortar.

But more crunching, and some more marks in the snow. Footprints, if his eyes were correctly adjusted to the dusty light. 

And humming, but not from the radiator. 

He shook his head, walking back to the bedroom faster than usual. But the sound was insistent. 

Opening his tiny bedroom window, he clapped twice just as a litmus test. He didn't know why that seemed useful, but it was a good placebo. The crunching stopped. 

"Thank you! Thank you!" A voice exclaimed. "I know I didn't do _that_ good of a job, but I appreciate the applause!" 

He must be going mad. 

"Uh. What?" he questioned the nothingness. He _really_ must be going mad to do that. 

"Was I disturbing you?" the voice called back and moved in the rough direction of the light, that revealed a translucent…figure, of some kind. It turned towards Renjun's window and bowed. 

"I’ll come back some other time then..." 

"No, _wait_ what the fuck." Renjun shook his head again and the figure looked back from its skipping. Now it floated over to his window, and as he approached more things got obvious. 

One: the "it" appeared to be a he. 

Two: due to only dim light, he was barely visible. 

Three: he was maybe, possibly, probably a ghost. Of some kind. An angel? 

Renjun made a note to get his eyes checked at some point. 

"What is it?" _he_ asked innocently. Suspiciously innocently. 

"I'm going crazy," Renjun muttered under his breath. 

"Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't introduce myself," _he_ said. Not that had even crossed Renjun's mind _he_ had a name. "I'm Jaemin. I think, anyway."

Renjun gritted his teeth, both from the chill and disbelief. 

"Okay then _Jaemin_ , care to explain yourself?" Where the ghost's mouth should be, a hole opened up to blackness. For a supernatural creature, he was surprisingly expressive. 

"Depends! In what way? In my life, my other life, my performance…"

"Everything? Maybe?" Renjun massaged his temples. Maybe he shouldn't have thrown away the last droplets of water. 

Jaemin sighed, a puff of vapour in the morning air. White, against absolute black now, other than the street lamp’s light that was starting to look like timid candlelight.

"Oh dear, that would take a long time. Maybe when I'm next alive, yeah?" He gave a hauntingly beautiful grin, swirling the remaining light into a galaxy. He was kind of like a cheshire cat now, and Renjun wondered if he'd just disappear into thin air straight after. He wished for that. Of course, it didn't happen. 

"What the _fuck_ do you mean-" Jaemin made some noise of realisation. 

"Oh! I forgot to mention as well. I was only paying a visit to an old friend." Renjun cringed at the pout in his voice. Again, the expressiveness was unsettlingly…human. Just how recently had this guy died?

"Old...friend?"

"Yeah!" A waft of wind waved itself into Renjun's face, as if Jaemin had just nodded. Forcefully, apparently. "Actually, you!" 

"I'm… _old friend_ , I'm…" It was too early for this bullshit. 

"In that case, I have a lot to catch you up on!" 

"Stop…speaking like that."

"Like what?" Jaemin clocked his head to the side. Absolutely sickening. 

"As if you have an excessive amount of energy. It's 5am."

"Can you blame me? I _am_ energy," he giggled. Repulsively adorable. Renjun waved his hand dismissively. 

"Whatever. Could you leave me alone?" 

"After all these years of wandering? Only to find you hidden at the top of the world to rot away?" Jaemin's voice now resonated in his chest, despite its softness. Resonated enough to crack Renjun's heart. "I guess I'm too late."

"Uh, maybe you got the wrong house?" Renjun tried to suggest helpfully out of what little sympathy he had for this entity. 

"Pretty sure it's right…it has that little blood stain on the floor there," A finger moved apart from Jaemin's shape and pointed. “-from that time I accidentally killed you."

"You- how the- _kill_?" Renjun gripped his hair, staggering backwards into the void of what was once his room. It was all in his head. But alas, Jaemin's hand rejoined itself and moved to cup his face. And somehow, he melted to the cold, cold touch. 

"I wanted to apologise, you know. But it seems like you've forgotten all about me," he said in a small, thin voice. So faint, as if it were a broken music box at the bottom of a pile of other abandoned toys, eternally playing the same torn tune. "I never meant it. But I think I'm too late now." His hands peeled away from Renjun's face, leaving a blushing warmth on his cheeks. 

"Go ahead." Renjun's voice got stuck at the back of his throat. "Apologise then."

Two dwindling lights seemed to take the place of Jaemin's eyes, that smiled along with him at the chance. 

"You and I went way back. Almost too far back. Sometimes I think we're together in every life, like soulmates. Maybe you are, Renjun." The human took note of how he knew his name without him once telling it to him. And Jaemin's delicate pronunciation of it, like if he said it too loud he'd break it. 

"And it was me. _I_ started to get overly protective of you. It was _me_ all along!" His voice threatened to break, and Renjun thought a little dimple formed in the snow where a single tear had fallen, fallen like a devil. Slid off of Jaemin's cotton-looking cheeks and landed with a ‘tick’ of some clock. 

"You already know this, but I got jealous. Seriously jealous. Inhumanely jealous, if you know what I mean. Supern-" Renjun shushed him and then motioned for him to continue, as if he'd done it a thousand times before. 

"You started to see someone. I thought I was _losing_ you to some good-for-nothing," Jaemin's words were now laced with steel. 

"That hatred drove me. And one day, on a snowy morning like this, I said to myself 'If I can't have him, then no one will'. I came over to this house, a penknife in my back pocket. That happened, Renjun, all those years ago."

"That happened…" Renjun repeated. 

"And I didn't mean to do harm to that extent, honest! I only wanted to tell you-"

"-that you loved me?" Renjun instinctively guessed. His mouth wasn't even his anymore. Jaemin squealed excitedly. 

"Exactly! And then in a frenzy I just…"

"You pulled it out and let me have it. And then the sirens…" Renjun's mind flooded with various snapshots. 

"That was the worst part. When they said you were dead. I couldn't live without you, Renjun." More dimples in the snow. "I just couldn't. And I guess I still can't if now I'm here…"

"Are you here to kill me again? Make me a ghost too?" Renjun suddenly regained his senses. 

"Didn't I just tell you I was apologising? Really Renjun, your memory hasn't improved one bit," Jaemin scolded. 

"So then are you done?" 

"Done in what sense?" 

"Done with me? Done apologising? Done with living?" 

"That last one would be a challenge for me to solve. But the other two, yes. I just wanted one final goodbye. And maybe the stars will re-align in the distant future.” What stars he was exactly talking about, Renjun would have to find out for himself. 

“In the meantime whilst I was waiting for you, I was doing that old dance we did when we were kids. I still remember it!" Jaemin stepped back a bit and more footprints formed. The pattern of crunches were vaguely familiar. 

"I thought it went like this?" Renjun demonstrated from the inside- ignoring the fact that there wasn’t really an inside anymore. The window frame had dissolved away into the frozen, and the curtain faded. Jaemin clapped his hands in delight, Renjun merely thought. He could only detect its echos, through this new mist.

"That was the next part!" Renjun continued to dance, twirling in random times when he felt like it and to everything, Jaemin smiled fondly and cheered him on. 

"You're just as elegant as I remember," he crooned. Renjun walked closer, his head somewhat of a blizzard. 

"So…"

"So…" Jaemin echoed. "Would you like me to leave?" 

"For good?" Renjun slipped out. Jaemin sighed, leaning over into the warmth surrounding Renjun and wrapping him up in a hug with strangely, no wall separating them. Physically. 

"If you want me to. I'll do anything for you." His words breathed themselves onto Renjun's neck, tattooing themselves there. They swarmed onto his skin, devouring it gradually. There was a snow-light touch of Jaemin's lips on his earlobe too. 

"Stay, then. I can't keep out the cold forever,” he murmured, eyes closed. 

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written something so spontaneously in a while man, and this fest really got me experimenting with my writing (thank you). I really really enjoyed writing this, so hope you enjoyed it too!


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